It was gusting 36 knots the other day, and the forecast indicates more. Every morning I check outside, worried about what the wind did to my plants in the night.
I have learned that the secret garden unfortunately becomes an absolute wind tunnel in the spring and summer months. I think these winds are called Santa Anas, but even after living here for 8 years I cannot be too sure. Wherever they come from, the W word can be devastating for my garden.
Today I noticed I lost a luffa plant, my blueberry is all beat up, and everything is in a bedraggled state. To make matters worse, the heat is coming and will fry tender new growth.
I have decided not to try too hard with a summer garden anymore. Between the heat and wind and hot winds – it’s just not worth all the drama. I do have a few spring things going, and my winter annuals are on their way out. Let’s take a look around and see what’s going on.
West side yard
Tomatoes are flowering and my two sisters are thriving. My son’s little petunia plant did not appreciate being removed to a pot, and my paperwhites never did anything. It’s okay, I thought they were already dead. Beans and pumpkins. I skipped the corn element of the three sisters, hence they are the two sisters. Bean there, done that. These peppers popped out of nowhere but of course I’ve forgotten if they’re supposed to be green or red. You can see the allysum and petunias I planted in the fall are starting to be done. Don’t worry, I’ll be finding allysum until kingdom come in my yard. I don’t mind it much and it’s easy to transplant. The best part is it’s free ninety-five. Here, I planted a cucumber start after a little critter ate all my cucumber seeds. It’s having trouble finding the trellis so I have to pop it into place when the wind blows it around. On the other side of the planter, I have a bush cucumber. This is an experiment to see which one, if any, produce. This area is under my patio on the west side, so gets 6 hours of sun.The chard really picked up. Fun fact, if you have too many seedlings close together you can just carefully pull them out and replant them. These are way too close together for mature plants so I plan to eat them. I’m saving the dill for seed after removing the parts of the plant that had powdery mildew. My peas all died again after a second planting so I give up on peas for the time being. I’m experimenting with zucchini here in the hell on wheels. Wow that chard looks great!
Patio – all indirect sunlight
The “Joshima Tree” cactus, as my kid likes to call it, lives on. I’m rehabbing the cactus in the small pot after my cat claimed it as a mousie. This elephant bush is soooo happy!My cyclamen appears to have nice new green leaves, but it’s not producing as many flowers. Last year, I had a beautiful red and white arrangement that kept going strong, so this year I planted 3 together in a container because it was cheaper than buying the arrangement. The leaves have all been so small and it’s just not as impressive overall as the plant I had. My old plant went brown so I threw it in the trash. Come to find out these guys go dormant and I maybe could have kept it! I’m going to try summering this plant and see if I can coax it out of hibernation this fall.Hmmm… it’s been a week. Maybe I should plant these…
Secret Garden
My blueberry is still alive. The real challenge will come next month with the heat.This kangaroo paw plant is doing excellent! So excited I found the right spot for it. This manzanita will be so pretty when all those buds bloom. They are so inexpensive and are a great choice for a climbing plant.Bed 2 of the secret garden and the requisite gardener’s foot in the photo. I have a robust oregano, garlic, cilantro, tomato, sage, zucchini, and a lone cosmo here. I finally figured out the secret to my sage plant. It doesn’t like too much water so when I put it on the outskirts of the sprinkler, it is happier. My cilantro already wants to go to seed so I feel a bout of guacamole coming on. Also, I’ve clocked that zucchini is doing better here than in the hell on wheels.
Let's Stay Holmes 